The very best Christmas presents are surely the ones you always wanted but that also contain a little extra element of surprise. That’s exactly what Scottish Ballet’s Cinders! delivers, with its gently subversive take on the classic fairytale ballet, Cinderella. This is a Christmas ballet wrapped up in luxurious traditional packaging. Elin Steele’s Edwardian gothic design, with its wrought-iron garden gates, dusky rose tulle and gaslit interiors is in perfect harmony with the light and dark melodrama of Prokofiev’s score (played live by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra).

Meanwhile, Artistic Director Christopher Hampson serves us a banquet of poised, classical choreography with prima ballerinas held aloft, sprightly court characters jeté-ing and fouetté-ing across the stage. It would be the most conservative Scottish Ballet production of recent years, were it not for the subtle twist: you don’t know until the curtain rises whether Cinders will be played by a male or female dancer, with the gender of Prince or Princess also reversed. 

On press night, a serene and affable Bruno Micchiardi danced Cinders, with Jessica Fyfe bringing gorgeous gravitas and grace to the prima ballerina role of Princess Louise. It’s a playful little touch that subtly nudges the audience to think about the implications of heavily gendered worlds in both ballet and fairytales, while also not really making a huge change to the production overall (the key duets between Cinders and their royal are the same regardless of who is playing the higher class character).

But there are other inventive and quietly subversive touches too. An additional male ‘bossy sibling’, Tarquin (phenomenally danced with preening panache by Aarón Venegas) pairs off with one of the royal brothers in the end. In addition, Cinders and the Princess don’t end up in the palace, but back in Cinders’ parents’ old drapers store, where his/her heart belongs. There’s nothing wildly radical here to ruffle the feathers of ballet traditionalists. But in pairing these small changes with a lavish and lush fairytale telling, Scottish Ballet shows that you can have your old-fashioned Christmas cake and eat it in contemporary style. 

Scottish Ballet: Cinders! is on tour until Saturday 10 February; reviewed at Theatre Royal, Glasgow.